Watch this video tutorial if you’d like to avoid common iPhone photography mistakes which prevent you from taking great photos with your Apple smartphone.

Stop doing these 5 mistakes when taking iPhone photos

There’s no shortage of tutorials that teach you how to make the most out of your iPhone’s camera. Our iPhone photography section includes helpful resources for learning the basics, from the right settings to how to focus properly and more.

This time around, however, we wanted to shake things up and tell you about some basic mistakes you should avoid when trying to snap up a good photo using your iPhone. So without further ado, check out the video at the top of this post, put together by our videographer Harris Craycraft (@_craycraft).

1. You’re unaware you’re shooting in Night Mode

Night Mode automatically kicks in when the algorithm detects you’re shooting in low light. But the way the Night Mode toggle is implemented in the Camera app leaves a lot to be desired. I believe Harris when he says in the video that he saw countless times people taking Night Mode pictures without even realizing it.

I also witnessed such situations and the problem is, Night Mode uses a long exposure time up to a few seconds, depending on lighting conditions. But people who are unaware of this just press the shutter button and lower their phone, leaving them with a blurry shot. Read: How to keep Night Mode off until you need it

To prevent that, be sure that the yellow Night Mode icon in Camera is toggled off. To make the app remember this setting, go to Settings → Camera → Preserve Settings and side the switch next to “Night Mode” to the ON position.

2. You don’t take photos of people in Portrait Mode

A common mistake when photographing someone is not using Portrait Mode, which uses your iPhone’s telephoto camera and depth data to produce flattering portraits. So instead of taking advantage of portraiture photography, most people simply capture their subjects in Photo Mode which lacks the depth-of-field effect.

Our advice to you would be to also always take a couple of portrait shots whenever photographing a person primarily in Photo Mode. When shooting in Portrait Mode, tell the subject to be totally still and use flash, even in daylight.

Avoid using Portrait Mode in low light because the telephoto camera struggles when there isn’t enough light. RAW fans, know that images taken in Portrait Mode don’t support the RAW format. Read: How to remove the depth effect from iPhone photos

3. You use flash when photographing moving subjects

Another typical mistake is using flash when taking pictures of fast-moving subjects, like people running around, a person jumping, your cat catching laser dots, etc. The Camera app fires the flash several times in a quick succession to adjust the amount of flash needed to adequately illuminate the scene, then it actually takes the shot.

Pre-flash calculations take some time, but the scene has already changed. So what have we learned today? If you’re trying to take a picture of a fast-moving subject, like a car, don’t use flash or else you’ll get some weird-looking results.

4. You don’t give a damn about composition

Poor composition can easily ruin your photo so you need to learn the art of good photo composition. Unfortunately, many folks take images without properly framing the shot, thinking that applying edits like crops will fix any problems with framing. But people who are serious about photography shoot as much in-camera as possible. Read: How to have the iPhone’s flash blink when you get a message

This entails taking advantage of the Rule of Thirds and turning on the grid (Settings → Camera → Grid) to help frame the image. This will help guide the placement of the horizon in your photos and stop you from taking disproportionally framed images. Read: What is the Rule of Thirds? How does it work?

The grid can even help make your photos more interesting. For instance, instead of placing the subject in the center of the image, position their head at an intersections of the grid lines. Read: Composition tips for taking great photos

5. You use the zoom instead of getting closer to the subject

The design of the Camera app makes it difficult to discern whether you’re zooming optically or digitally. iPhones provide up to 3x optical zoom. Beyond that, the image is enlarged digitally which produces artifacts and results in blurriness.

To avoid that, walk as close to your subject as possible and then take the shot. You’ll be ended up with a detailed, crisp image where the subject fills the frame and detail is clearly visible. Read: 5 ways to remotely control the iPhone camera

Other iPhone photography tutorials

If you like this video, you may might also want to give our video tutorial highlighting 5 things you should do to take great photos with your iPhone a quick watch.

And if you’re familiar with those, then you should check out our collection of some of the best iPhone photography tips, including choosing the shooting format, adjusting exposure and focus, taking advantage of the Rule of Thirds and so on.

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This content was originally published here.